San Diego TV Station Says CNN Nixed a Local Segment After Learning the Border Wall Works

Brittany M. Hughes | January 11, 2019
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Local San Diego news channel KUSI is accusing CNN of scrapping a local segment on the city’s border wall after the network offered to provide a report showing that the barrier does, in fact, work.

“As a sign of the times in this debate on the shutdown, CNN asked if KUSI would provide a report to offer our local view of the debate – especially to learn if the wall works in San Diego," a KUSI anchor stated in a segment posted on Twitter.
 


"KUSI offered our own Dan Plante, who’s reported many times that the wall is not an issue here. In fact, most officials believe it is effective. The issue we face is the migrants and the debate over their treatment," another added.

“Now, knowing this, CNN declined to have us on their programs, which often present the wall as not required in other places, like the stretch of the Texas border the president visited earlier today. They didn’t like what they heard from us.”

KUSI digital content manager Mike McKinnon III added in a statement posted on the independent network’s website, “We believe CNN declined a report from KUSI because we informed them that most Border Patrol agents we have spoken to told us the barrier does in fact work.”

In response, CNN issued a statement on Twitter claiming, “We called several local stations to book someone for a show. We didn’t end up booking any of them. That happens many times every single day. We did, however, book a reporter from KUSI for a story on immigration and the border wall in November. This is a non story.”
 


However, CNN hasn’t offered any details as to exactly why they declined the report.

While major national outlets dedicated primarily to opposing Trump and his proposed wall may have their own agenda, it’s long been understood by San Diego residents and the border agents who work there that the wall does, in fact, work.

MRCTV visited the San Diego border wall between the Southern California city and Tijuana last year, a tour that included an interview with two border agents who testified that the existing border fence was crucial in helping curb the illegal migration, drug smuggling and cartel violence that plagued much of the area before the fence was built in the 1990s.

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